Abstract
This is the third report in a study series that examined the relationships between English learning experiences in elementary school days and English proficiency and attitude toward learning it in high school years. Participants were 661 students learning at either of the two courses at a SELHi, one regular and the other English-focused. They took a survey on pre-junior-high English learning experiences and current drive to learn the language. They also sat for an ACE battery test with listening, reading, grammar, and vocabulary components. T-tests indicated significantly higher means for those with the early learning experience, in motivation and listening, but not in reading, grammar, or vocabulary. The effects on motivation and listening were significant even after the influences of sex, school course and year were partialed out by multiple regression. There was also some evidence that early English learning had a greater impact on motivation and proficiency if it had continued for three or more, than for two or fewer, years.
